Public Release: 4-Jun-2015 PLOS PathogensShh! Don't wake the sleeping virus!
Scientists at Bar-Ilan University report on a novel experimental model that, for the first time, successfully mimics the 'sleeping' and 'waking' of the varicella-zoster virus. Based on neurons generated from human embryonic stem cells, and not requiring the use of experimental animals, the model allows scientists to test drugs and develop therapies to prevent shingles. It may also contribute to the fight against other viruses -- such as herpes and polio -- that target the human nervous system.
National Institutes of Health, Israel Academy of Sciences, US-Israel Binational Science Foundation

Public Release: 4-Jun-2015 ScienceVanishing friction
Physicists at MIT have developed an experimental technique to simulate friction at the nanoscale. Using their technique, the researchers are able to directly observe individual atoms at the interface of two surfaces and manipulate their arrangement, tuning the amount of friction between the surfaces. By changing the spacing of atoms on one surface, they observed a point at which friction disappears.
National Science Foundation, National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada

Public Release: 4-Jun-2015 Current BiologyCheating amoebas reveal key to successful societies
Nobody likes a cheater. In a recent study, a University of Houston evolutionary biologist and her collaborators found that while cheaters do not take over populations, they also cannot ever fully be removed. Supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, the findings are described in a paper appearing June 15 in Current Biology.
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 4-Jun-2015 PLOS Computational BiologyPlanarian regeneration model discovered by artificial intelligence
An artificial intelligence system has for the first time reverse-engineered the regeneration mechanism of planaria -- the small worms whose power to regrow body parts makes them a research model in human regenerative medicine. The discovery presents the first model of regeneration discovered by a non-human intelligence and the first comprehensive model of planarian regeneration, which has eluded human scientists for a century.
National Science Foundation, National Institutes of Health, United States Army Medical Research and Materiel Command, Mathers Foundation

Public Release: 3-Jun-2015 NatureSudden draining of glacial lakes explained
In 2008 scientists from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution and the University of Washington documented for the first time how the icy bottoms of lakes atop the Greenland Ice Sheet can crack open suddenly -- draining the lakes completely within hours and sending torrents of water to the base of the ice sheet thousands of feet below. Now they have found a surprising mechanism that triggers the cracks.
National Science Foundation's Office of Polar Programs, National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Cryospheric Sciences Program

Public Release: 3-Jun-2015 Journal of NanophotonicsWorld's smallest spirals could guard against identity theft
Vanderbilt researchers have made the world's smallest spirals and found they have unique optical properties that are nearly impossible to counterfeit if they were added to identity cards, currency and other objects.
US Department of Energy, National Science Foundation

Public Release: 3-Jun-2015 Proceedings of the Royal Society BPaleo study shows how elevation may affect evolution
About 34 million years ago, global temperatures took a dive, causing a sudden wave of extinctions among European mammals. In North America, however, life went on largely unscathed. A new study explains why: the rise of the Rocky Mountains had forced North American mammals to adapt to a colder, drier world.
AV Humboldt, National Science Foundation

Public Release: 3-Jun-2015 PLOS ONETrouble in the tide pools
A harmful algal bloom is the suspected culprit of a die-off in 2011 of millions of purple sea urchins and six-starred sea stars in Northern California. Their disappearance is predicted to have long-term ecological consequences on their populations. As algal blooms are expected to increase with climate change and ocean acidification, similar mass mortality events are expected to increase.
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 2-Jun-2015 NeurocomputingBrain's reaction to certain words could replace passwords
You might not need to remember those complicated e-mail and bank account passwords for much longer. According to a new study, the way your brain responds to certain words could be used to replace passwords.
National Science Foundation, Binghamton University's Interdisciplinary Collaboration Grants Program

Public Release: 2-Jun-2015
American Society for Mass Spectrometry Conference on Mass Spectrometry and Allied TopicsChemists weigh intact virus mixture with mass spectrometer
Carnegie Mellon University chemists, led by Mark Bier, have separated and weighed virus particles using mass spectrometry. This is the first time that researchers successfully used matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization MS to analyze a mixture of intact virus particles.
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 2-Jun-2015 Journal of Experimental Psychology: GeneralWhen the color we see isn't the color we remember
Though people can distinguish among millions of colors, we have trouble remembering specific shades because our brains tend to store what we've seen as one of just a few basic hues.
National Science Foundation, Walter L. Clark Fellowship Fund

Public Release: 2-Jun-2015 Physics Review LettersResearchers simulate behavior of 'active matter'
From flocks of starlings to schools of fish, nature is full of intricate dynamics that emerge from the collective behavior of individuals. In recent years, interest has grown in trying to capture similar dynamics to make self-assembling materials from so-called 'active matter.' Researchers from Brown University have shed new light on the dynamics of one type of active matter known as active colloids.
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 2-Jun-2015 BioScienceCoupled human and natural systems explain change on the Mongolian Plateau
Using well-established metrics of social, economic, and ecosystem functions, researchers have achieved a holistic view of coupled human and natural systems on the Mongolian Plateau. This view reveals a dynamic system of interacting factors, with widely varied results in the plateau's two geopolitical regions.
National Science Foundation, NASA, Natural Science Foundation of China, International Center for Ecology, Meteorology, and Environment

Public Release: 1-Jun-2015Eight schools test-drive PULSE certification of undergraduate biology education
The organization PULSE has announced the results of a pilot certification program for undergraduate life science departments. PULSE is a collaborative effort to catalyze the adoption of the principles outlined in the 2011 Vision and Change Report: A Call to Action, published by the AAAS. The eight participants in the pilot program were chosen from among more than 70 applicants.
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 1-Jun-2015 Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine ResearchAncient algae found deep in tropical glacier
Rice, Nebraska and Ohio State researchers looking for carbon in equatorial ice cores find diatoms, a type of algae. Their presence is evidence of what the landscape around the Andes in Peru might have been like more than a millennium ago.
Welch Foundation, Byrd Polar Research Center, Shared Equipment Authority at Rice, National Science Foundation

Public Release: 1-Jun-2015 Personality and Social Psychology BulletinAt peak fertility, women who desire to maintain body attractiveness report they eat less
Women near peak fertility -- those nearing ovulation -- and who are motivated to manage their body appearance, reported they desire to lose weight and so ate fewer calories. Those are findings from three new independent studies, says lead author Andrea Meltzer, Southern Methodist University, Dallas. Previous ovulation research has attributed reduced eating solely to neuroendocrinological factors. The new findings indicate an additional factor is a woman's concern about her body appearance, say Meltzer and her co-authors.
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 1-Jun-2015 Advanced Material InterfacesNew sensing tech could help detect diseases, fraudulent art, chemical weapons
Discovered in the 1970s, SERS is a sensing technique prized for its ability to identify chemical and biological molecules in a wide range of fields. It has been commercialized, but not widely. That may soon change. An international research team led by University at Buffalo engineers has developed nanotechnology that promises to make SERS simpler and more affordable.
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 1-Jun-2015
International Symposium on MechanochemistryAll shook up for greener chemistry
UC research is the only American research at an international conference examining trends and benefits of mechanochemistry.
National Science Foundation

Public Release: 1-Jun-2015 Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesHitchhiking to Caribbean coral
Recently-introduced algae in Caribbean offers short-term benefits but could have serious long-term negative effects. New evidence shows it likely arrived via cargo ships from the Pacific.
National Science Foundation, Canon Foundation, Pennsylvania State University, Florida International University, PADI Foundation

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